Torturegate

Last week's New York Times story about two secret Justice Department legal opinions on CIA interrogation techniques leaves no room for doubt. We are in the midst of a full-fledged scandal involving illegality and deceit at the highest levels of the United States government. Call it Torturegate.

For the past six years, the, the administration has deliberately circumvented longstanding prohibitions against torture and other abuse. It has facilitated and sanctioned the use of highly coercive interrogation tactics, not only in secret CIA prisons (or "black sites") but also at Guantánamo Bay and even in the United States. Perhaps worst of all, the administration has sought, in secret, to justify the techniques as legal.

Torturegate's origins lie in the decisions and writings of a cabal of high-ranking officials from the White House and the Office of Legal Counsel ("OLC"), the once prestigious branch of the Justice Department that function as the president's chief legal advisor. The participants included Vice President Dick Cheney, his chief of staff David Addington, former White House Counsel and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and OLC attorney John Yoo. None had any real life experience waging war or fighting terrorism. Yet, they all believed fervently that America had to "work ... the dark side" to defend itself.

This group helped initiate and defend a "war on terrorism" that eliminated all constraints on the treatment and interrogation of detainees. Not even the most minimal protections of the Geneva Conventions applied, opening the door to the creation of a global network of prisons beyond the law. Under the misguided assumption that harsh measures produce good intelligence, the United States began to engage in a series of so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques," including ones that simulate drowning and induce hypothermia. That these techniques did not leave physical marks did not make them any less cruel than the rack and the screw.

OLC then provided legal cover to assuage concerns that officials who engaged in these tactics might be liable under a federal statute criminalizing torture. A now notorious August 2002 legal memo (drafted principally by John Yoo) sought to define torture so narrowly as to render it meaningless, limiting it to the extreme physical pain accompanying organ failure or death. For good measure, the memo said torture could never be illegal as long as the president had approved it.

The public outcry after Yoo's memo was leaked to the press, coupled with internal opposition within OLC, prompted reconsideration. A subsequent memo from December 2004 called torture "abhorrent" and suggested a retreat from the prior assertion of sweeping presidential authority to engage in the practice. But the December 2004 memo did not question the legality of any of the torture tactics. Nor did it address the problem of other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment ("CID") that did not meet the legal definition of torture.

In 1988, the United States signed a treaty outlawing CID (or "torture lite" as it is sometimes called, a treaty that now more than 140 countries have ratified. But the administration dodged this binding legal obligation by arguing that the treaty does not restrain the United States when it acts abroad.

So, in December 2005, Senator John McCain and other members of Congress addressed this perceived loophole by categorically banning CID by any U.S. official, including the CIA, anywhere in the world.

But OLC, now under Gonzales' leadership, had already acted to keep the loophole open. As The New York Times reported last week, two secret OLC memos from earlier that year found that the harshest interrogation tactics did not constitute CID, even when used in combination. Notably, the administration did not share these opinions with Congress, which unknowingly voted to outlaw techniques that the executive branch secretly determined were legal. The two opinions still remain in effect, sanctioning the use of harsh interrogation techniques against the untold number individuals who disappear into America's network of secret prisons.

Although Torturegate's full repercussions will not be known for years to come, its effects have already proven devastating. Torturegate has eroded confidence in the Justice Department and shattered the reputation of OLC, once widely respected for providing independent legal advice to presidents.

Torturegate has also undermined America's credibility. Gone is America's moral authority to advocate on the world stage for justice and human rights. Yes, other regimes may be more lawless and repressive but these differences are increasingly ones of degree. Virtually all governments seek to justify their actions in the name of the public good. The question is whether a nation's leaders exercise the self-restraint necessary to make their nation one of laws not of men.

If America is to regain what it has lost, it must act to repair the damage. Congress must make good on its demand that the administration produce the two secret 2005 OLC opinions, along with other prior legal opinions about interrogation techniques. It must also ensure the end of secret prisons, take additional steps to prohibit the CIA's use of torture techniques (such as by mandating the CIA follow the Army's interrogation manual), and restore habeas corpus. And steps must be taken to rebuild OLC's integrity.

Torturegate may have been the result of a small group of individuals bent on avoiding the rule of law. But, now that their work has been exposed, it is our collective responsibility to take corrective action.

Comments

[realitytrumpsbull]

Say it in a word...'impeach'.

[Sundialsvc4]

The men and women in the Justice Department are the "fixers." They rubber-stamp an obviously phony election with the Supreme Court's seal of approval. They divert any possibility of criminal investigation away from the crimes, while using those same powers to abduct, torture, and kill opponents.

Let us not forget that the SS and the Gestapo were "the State Security Service," basically "Homeland Security." The Germans fell for it too.

We can only hope that the truth will out; that the people will wake up to the true nature of the disaster that has befallen them.

[charon]

Those who conceived, designed, and implemented this program of torture should be bound over to the Hague for trial on charges of crime against humanity, and on conviction, hung in the gallows where the Nazis swung. That is the only way of preventing a repeat of this gross abuse of power to torture.

[Rescisco]

We do not engage in torture, that would be wrong. We do engage in aggressive extra-constitutional emergency acts of extreme interrogation of terrorists (they're trying to kill us ya' know) for the purpose of extracting important information that we should already know but are too inept to gather through normal intelligence operations and too stupid to realize can't be effectively extracted through aggressive extra-constitutional emergency acts of extreme interrogation of terrorists . This we do under the provisions of the well known and widely accepted executive perrogative to scare the crap out of the public for political self gain and to confuse that fear we have created with reality as we pursue an ideologically blind and fatally flawed policy to its logical conclusion and the destruction of our own democracy. That's ultimately good because too much democracy creates an environment in which facts supercede patriotism and history replaces rhetoric. That's how you end up with liberals in the White House, and we that can only lead to a government that works and that's the last thing we need when we should be cutting taxes and invading Iran!

This is the basic Republican line. I think its a winner if you consider the behavior of te electorate over the past 30 years.

[amerdiaspora]

isn't what jesus would do..............

[RobertPaul]

There are two main reasons that BushCo will get away with this.
1. Nancy Pelosi took impeachment off the table.
2. The BushCo cabal will not turn over ANY incriminating evidence.

Yes, somewhere down the road all will come out. BushCo could care less. By the time it does, they will be out of office and hiding behind Pardons given by a President who couldn't care less about this country.

But the really scary part is that Clinton will inherit the office. I DO NOT TRUST HER TO ROLL BACK THE BushCo "laws."

The only possibly worse outcome would be if Guilini takes the office.

If that happens, I'm moving to New Zealand.

[samp426]

This is a tragedy of epic proportion that will end up on the last page of public notice, perhaps commented on in this blog and then dropped into the abyss of apathy.
It's a crime against America, for which someone needs to pay, otherwise there is absolutely no difference in spirit between us and the SS pursuing the eradication of Jews, via the license of government necessity and security.
However, dear readers, you and I both know that the punishment, nor the prosecution, will ever materialize as it's labeled "unpatriotic" an/or subversive to do so.
Spooky, isn't it?
Welcome to the New World Order, where the fact that you wearing a lapel pin signifies more than morality, as practised by a civilized people.

[Plowboy]

Bush admits that torture is wrong when he denies that his government does it. BUT
He must think that we are all fools to put out such an obvious lie.
His government does it knowing it to be evil --- like themselves.
I despise those who stole my country.

[JustAnotherJoe]

And yet, impeachment is still off the table.

[Jane22]

In my view, the real problem here is that there is too much lack of objectivity in applying laws in America. To expect partisans to uphold the law instead of political considerations seems to be too much in these days of lawless politics! Runaway CAPITALISM (which these folks support with the BLOOD OF OTHERS)is also to blame. There are no restrictions on how anyone operates. This free for all of money grabbing can only be corrected with Law! When you have the wolves watching the hen house, what do you get? Would that be a feeding frenzy or responsible government? That our country is now the most renegade Nation around is not being ignored by the rest of the World. Maybe that is why Ahmadinajad wants to get the WMD's to protect his country from the truly dangerous possessor's of WMD's, the ones so addicted that they might actually start using again? ah? George Bush the Articulate, puppet-in-chief of the Grand Masters of the Universe (In their own minds)? Could something called THE LAW ever again be actually applied to all transactions? Not Right Now! JaneC for Supreme Court Justice! An endorsement for the Laws of the Land.

[Jane22]

Note to Jane22: The truly tortured folks of the U.S. of A. We the people! We have to Pay, Pay, Pay without due process and without consideration for our needs. Wake up my fellow citizens. WE ARE THE MAJORITY. they are the MINORITY! True patriotism honors the LAND UPON WHICH THE PEOPLE WALK. (Crazy Horse). We the People are truly among the TORTURED! Financially, we are being looted supposedly with our democratic duly elected consent! Fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice, ah! ah! Oh! You Know... janeC

[rlehman]

"Gone is America's moral authority to advocate on the world stage for justice and human rights."

That moral authority was always what made me proud to be an American. Now, I ache for what we have lost. We've never been perfect. Hell we've never even been close to perfect. But, from the attempted extermination of the native population, to slavery, to the civil rights movement of the 50's and 60's at least we were on the path forward. With the Bush administration we have gone so far backward I can't imagine seeing the America I once knew ever again, at least not in my lifetime. Perhaps there is hope for my grandchildren or great grandchildren.

[cyberhawk]

I look at these men Bush,Chaney,Gonzalez and the likes as ,yes inexperienced, but also men of violence.Bush has a reputation of using violence in the political arena. He has put men to death in the prison system for years. There is no compromise in this administration and there never has been.I hope the American public has finally catch on for the sake of us all. We have been dodging a nuclear war in this country for years and I can only pray that the country comes to its sinces, before someone like Bush and his administration makes a big mistake. Furthermore, who knows what his violent and discrinating administration has already gotten us into!

[LittleBrother]

"Torturegate"?

Yes, this is a very grim and serious situation-- but must it be trivialized by perpetuating that dumb "-gate" suffix? That stopped being clever about thirty years ago; it's long past time to put it away.

[SensibleAmerican]

"We are in the midst of a full-fledged scandal involving illegality and deceit at the highest levels of the United States government" ...

Seriously? Name anything and I mean ANYTHING that this administration has done which is not decietful and illegal?!

[wldnswmmr]

I agree. Enough already with the "-gate" stuff. Maybe the "American Inquisition" could catch on, with Addington as Torquemada. As for what we will do about this scandal, it seems to me that every time Congress acts, whether with the Detainee Treatment Act or the Military Commissions Act, it always includes a get-out-of-jail free card for every atrocity committed by the Administration prior to enactment of the act, so long as it was done under the "advice of counsel," a neat circularity that encourages the OLC and Bush's mouthpieces to keep churning out rationalizations for every awful thing they can think of. What needed to happen a long time ago was for Congress to push for independent counsel to prosecute American torturers under the federal Anti-Torture Statute for violations of the Geneva Conventions. That would have meant something. They didn't, of course, because this is not a country that cares anymore about moral issues.

[seawolf77]

I disagree. If ever a moniker be deserved for an adminstration it's Torturegate to this one. We have all been tortured by this guy and you have the religious right to thank for that.